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Avenger Assembled

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  1. Avenger Assembled
    May 16, 2015 Wharton State Forest Dry weather had turned parts of the big forest into so much kindling - and a lightning storm had turned kindling into a fire. Luckily no humans were hurt, but the ugly patch of burnt woods on either side of the Mullica River stood out like scars on the landscape the next morning, and the rest of the property damage inflicted by the fire was enough to suggest that the park staff needed some help. It was a good place for a visiting plant controller to come and clean up the damage (while leaving enough for the forest to recover from the fire naturally), and for a Claremont student to get her community service credit. "We're glad to have you both here," said Ranger Rick Buchanan as he led Fleur de Joie and Cerulean down the path from the ranger access road to the burn site. "The biggest damage we took was the loss of Tower 4," he went on, pointing to the half-melted steel watchtower had had collapsed into the burnt-over area. "We've been trying to convert the old lookout towers into historic sites for years - but now all we have is Towers 2 and 3 on the far side of the park." He turned and eyed the damage, the ashy area of fallen timbers and molten metal still warm from the recent flames. "Worse, Tower 4 was built almost a hundred years ago, which means they used a lot of heavy metals we'd never let into the park now. If you can't dig them out now, we're in for a long, expensive cleanup."
  2. Avenger Assembled
    The first few days of disaster relief were difficult - they had all seen chaos and disaster before in their superheroic careers, but a cataclysm in Freedom City, with its high super-density and the presence of matter manipulators like Dr. Metropolis, was different than a disaster in a place like Sapporo, especially cut off from superheroic aid. Eventually they made contact with Kingsnake, the hero having made his ersatz headquarters in the historic Sapporo Beer Museum, and in a temporarily abandoned office they shared their intelligence about the mysterious Namazu Corporation - a story that grew grimmer by the word. "Suggest we enter facilities ourselves and investigate in force," said Kingsnake, his voice a low growl from a shadowy corner near the window. It was dark outside this late in the day, the only lights in the sky being Namazu drones still scouting out the city. "Found a backup facility near Mt. Asahi. Can't breach gates alone," admitted the rough-voiced hero. "Some of you not very subtle - will make investigation easier." He gave a low chuckle, his black and white costume perfectly matching the darkened office in which they met, what generally belonged to the director of the historic site. Before the others could answer, though, there was the sound of distant explosions and flashing lights from nearby. Looking out the windows revealed some sort of super-battle going on above the fitness center across the street, something where the armored Kashima (accompanied by swarms of Namazu drones) appeared to be engaged in sudden aerial battle not with a person, but with a figure shaped from the lightning itself. "Time to go," commented Kingsnake, cracking open his baton and sliding open the window in preparation for moving into battle - the people around here had lived through enough, amid broken windows and damaged buildings, to have to deal with a full-scale super-battle!
  3. Avenger Assembled
    "Can your friends follow us...underwater!?" challenged the leader as Wander's bat passed harmlessly through his body, hands on his hips and with a thoroughly pleased sound to his voice even behind his gas mask and other gear. "We're master criminals and you're just some teenage punks! Light her up, boys!" It turned out the weapons the men were carrying couldn't hurt Wander, but even guns shifted partially out of phase with reality could shoot out blinding streams of burning-white light that fitzed out harmlessly once they reached the edges of the small 'clearing' of boxes where the van was parked. One blast found its mark - but as annoying as the bright lights were, they weren't enough to do more than put spots before the eyes of someone who'd walked on the bottom of the sea and lived to tell about it. Seeing this turn of events, and dodging fire of her own from the driver who'd stepped out to shoot at her, Nina tried something. She let herself fall backwards, right over one of the boxes, and from the floor yelled "Ah! My bloody ankle! This is the worst thing ever! You gutless, miserable -" It turned out that Nina knew a lot about cursing; perverse, foul-mouthed obscenities that verbally flayed open the sexuality, sexual equipment, and general personal hygiene of the criminals, shouting right over the boss's attempt to give orders to his men loud enough that finally one went over there with a stun rifle, leaned over the barrel, right into Monsoon's smirk. On the other side of the truck, Wander caught the man's hurk and Nina's perfectly calm, albeit slightly raspy, "I have you now."
  4. Avenger Assembled
    Have an HP for getting sucker-grabbed, you guys! Terrifica, that's a DC 25 grapple check if you want to try and bust out. Note that if you guys do go to combat here, it'll be _very_ short.
  5. Avenger Assembled
    "I don't know what most of those words mean," admitted the ghost, "but I know that you come as a friend...and there have been precious few of those as it is. I cannot leave this place because of what lies outside it - and I cannot sleep because of HIM!" Joseph declared, and suddenly Miss Americana looked up to see (via the now-active link on the Archetech laptop) the other Joseph menacing Terrifica; the cold mechanical rage to the all-too-human spectre with whom she was bandying words. "Foolish woman," the projection was now sneering, "I am not a man! I am the machine they built from my corpse, a monster of steel and dead flesh, far more powerful than either could have been on their own! And when I rise to the surface, the monster they created will DESTROY them!" Suddenly, Terrifica became aware of a giant mechanical form behind her as arms as thick as a man's waist closed around her!
  6. Avenger Assembled
    "Oh, it's not that sweet," said Richard with a wave of his hand. He took the big 64-oz cup Paige had filled for him from the Sodastream and poured a plastic cup full of a very, very dark brown soda for Sam. "You just take the syrup, cut it with water, and add the carbonation," he went on as she raised it to her lips. "I use two or three capfuls at once, but it makes something that's-" "So sweet Mom says we're not even allowed to touch it at the risk of our brains melting," said Holly with a smirk as she shook Sam's hand. "It's okay - soon my TK will come in, and then I'll be able to do all this from the comfort of my chair, heh-heh-heh." It had the feel of a running family joke from the way she winked at her mom. "All right, everybody, let's all get ready," Richard corralled his son down at the picnic table too, helping the ladies set the table and getting everything ready. "Just help yourself to whatever you want," he told Sam as he set out dishes laden with picnic food. "Just save some of the hot sauce burger for the boys," he added with a grin.
  7. Avenger Assembled
    "Her situation will be difficult," said Raven, her cold voice full of banked fire, setting down the pen she'd been using to make notes - but surely the Raven had a photographic memory, or even recorders watching the conversation. "She had the willpower to resist whatever suggestions they were using on the others, but it's clear she'd been the victim of extensive brainwashing. But that's not something you need to worry about," she told Glamazon with a direct tone of reassurance, as much like a teacher's as another superhero. "She'll get the best of care, both medical and psionic. You did the right thing in going to her aid - and in giving her time to explain what was going on." - "It's pretty clear what they were planning, at least for you," said the Raven reflectively, looking up from her notes to look at Cho through the eyepieces of her armored cowl. "Jonathan Grant has been a cause celebre for anti-metahuman journalism ever since that Wander robot broke his neck during the Day of Wrath. If _another_ young metahuman went for him, he could use that to restart that political bid of his. Seems he's a man of...ambition." - "It's a sign of what they prioritized," said Daedalus grimly. "Brainwash the young people into believing they had the secret knowledge of the masters of the world and that only they could fight it, manipulate another one into almost going on a mass destruction spree that could have caused a war, and leave the baseline humans as collateral damage. I despise those who use children for their own ends." He steepled his fingers for a moment, dark eyes burning with intensity, before going on, "As grim as the situation was, you and your team resolved it without allowing it to explode into further violence - and without doing further harm to that poor foolish child. You did well." - "Believe it or not, I'm not very good at stage magic," said Seven with a shrug. "I tried it a couple of times when I was in school, but having all those strangers watching me perform just gave me the jinkies." She grinned. "Doesn't explain what I'm doing on the Freedom League, but at least there I'm focused on my team, the mission, or the monster, and not on everyone watching." She hesitated a moment, then sighed, "This was bad, but I've seen these situations get a whole lot worse. At least, as far as we know, the kids are alive and they're not actively causing trouble. Small mercies."
  8. Avenger Assembled
    Tarva shifted uncomfortably in her seat for a moment, and Eve felt the distinct sensation of shadowy walls rising up inside her colleague's mind. "Fear not, Eve, the embrace of cold, merciless shadow has long since freed me from fears of snowy nights - even if it has denied me the balm of mortal warmth. But even so, I have ways of providing my own heat," she added with a knowing smile. Rising to her feet, she added, "If you are interested in the dress, I would be delighted to make one for your northern lover. Just let me know." And with that, she turned and headed back out to rejoin the others, bestowing a smile on Kimber and Indira as she passed. "We're going to have such a time in Thunder Bay - I can hardly wait. Let me know if there's anything I can do for you on the way, my friends."
  9. Avenger Assembled
    "But I want to see the sad puppies in Heaven!" protested Emma, her voice full of childish guilt. "I have to see if they are okay!" "Oh, baby," said Jean, gently prying her daughter off Paige and holding her in her arms. "It was very sad that that happened, but that wasn't you, honey, that was wild dogs in the neighborhood. The policemen will find them and he'll make sure all the puppies stay safe." "No, it was me!" said Emma, waving her arms vigorously. "I ated them up in my dreams!" And she made momentary eye contact with Paige - and for a second or two, Hologram tasted blood in her mouth and the feral joys of the hunt, the grass cool on her skin and the meat fresh as it slid down her gullet... "...I just want to know if it's normal there. I mean, I know the kids have powers and they're learning how to be superheroes," Jean was saying, now floating herself slightly as she held onto a clingy Emma, "but is Emma going to get the chance to be a normal girl there?"
  10. Avenger Assembled
    "All right," said Daniels tentatively. "So you're an outsider too." He looked at the others of his group before going on, "I have biographies of everybody - names, skills, college degrees, everything. The history we left behind may be different, but outside of superheroes the culture and technology were all just the same." "We can't just live like this, like, like it's ninety years ago, or even worse!" interjected one whose name Lucy hadn't quite caught, a freckled redheaded woman with a growing tan. "Even those of us trained as survivalists, there's not enough space here to do the kind of hunting and plowing we know how to do, and even if there was..." She smiled thinly. "We learned how to do this when we thought it would keep us alive, but that doesn't mean we wanted to live like it all the time."
  11. Avenger Assembled
    Are we ready to do this, team?
  12. Avenger Assembled
    Sharl jumps into the phone and tries to grapple the bad guy on the other end! Does that work?
  13. Avenger Assembled
    Steve thought of fathers. His own had bled to death in his arms, slowly, the stink of blood filling the air, drawing the foul cannibal scavengers that lurked among the proles, killing and breeding freely among the weak and helpless. He'd gone for his own knife to chase them away even as his father's face turned paler and colder, and had come back to find a cooling corpse of his sole remaining parent. He had been, by the standards of Earth-Prime, about thirteen. Gina Evans' was, by her account, a weak man who had allowed his wife to take her daughter in hand and reshape her into something she despised, leaving behind scars on the soul that had yet to fade. Dragonfly's was, from what he'd heard, a man who had done the same thing in his own grim way. Steve thought of secrets. Of the worlds where the Interceptors had been Freedom City's sole line of defense against the Terminus; worlds left burning to ash in the space of a single day upon the coming of Omegadrones. He thought of the sight of dead friends, and his hands around Erik's throat, and the questions that would never be asked about the debts that he could never repay. And he thought of Jean Pique of the Flaming Eye, wielding weapons that could destroy any host or defeat any foe, torn to pieces by the pikes of a dozen Omegadrones. A man who died with his family; defending his family. Steve thought of children. Of the life he had been born into on the streets of dread Nihilor. Of the child denied him by fate and circumstance. Of dead children - of so many dead faces that he had long since blotted out the places and names and last rattling breaths of all but a select few. Of the bottomless grief of the parent of a dead child; of the twisted wrath of a parent so maddened by love of the Doom Coil that they...no, no, he would not take that memory to this place, and think it before the eyes of this man. Of the knowledge that he would never be a father - and that this was a blessing, because what child untainted by horrors could look at him and _know_ him for what he was, and not recoil in horror? It was cold on the rooftop, and by now a grey wind had begun to blow that howled faintly amid the low buildings of the West End.
  14. Avenger Assembled
    "Wow, I didn't detect any psionic activity at all," commented Sharl to Miss A as he looked over the readouts on a nearby monitor. He was more than familiar with superpowers on Earth, but there was nothing here he recognized. The lack of psionic output was, he knew she knew, a sign of something peculiar - almost all Lor 'superpowers' were some outgrowth or other of the frequent Lor genotypical ability to manipulate the 'fifth force', psionic energy. "Is your energy output any particular kind of radiation?" he asked of Corona. "That was a lot of IR output, but we can handle anything short of magnetics with the systems here. And even that's more a me problem than the equipment," he added with a wry smile. He knew better than to criticize Terran technology where Gina could hear; having earned some rather tart lectures on that subject from his erstwhile mentor.
  15. Avenger Assembled
    "Don't wanna go to kinnergarten!" protested Emma, as if an old wound had been opened. "I wanna go to supahero school!" She was looking at her mom when she said it, and Paige instantly recognized something that had been the subject of argument between a small child and her mother. "Kiddo, you've gotta go to kindergarten!" said Jean to her daughter, who was clutching Paige's leg piteously, as if pleading with her to save her from the terrifying fate of kindergarten. "You've got to finish learning to read and write, so you can read your books on your own!" "Kindergarten kids can't fly!" protested Emma again. "Numbers and letters are BORING!" she added, now definitely starting to drift her way up Paige's leg, as if she had suddenly begun to grow weightless. "I wanna fly and see Heaven!" - In the kitchen, Honey Howard stared at Wail from behind thick prescription glasses, from the look on her face biting back a tart comment or two of her own. "Don't you scuff my tiles, mister," she finally said before throwing a bag of trash over her shoulder and trudging out the back door to the backyard trash bins. In the moment she was gone, the heavy metal storm door shut, Harry Howard's face fell. "She, uh, she doesn't like having other supers around, so today's hard. She damn near blew the roof off when she found out Jean called the people at Nicholson." Fidgeting for a moment with a fallen refrigerator magnet, Harry added quietly, "I'm sorry I missed the memorial this year, Keith." It was an answer, but not much of one. A moment later he looked away, and added, "Been a long time since somebody called me Bottlecap...Bumblebee," he added with what should have been a smile in his voice. "I called you because something's..." He looked back at Keith, his eyes haunted. "You remember back when those kooky sharkmen were building a tunnel under the Lincoln Bank, and I nagged you and Jump and Jive to go digging till we found them? It's that same feeling. Something's happening, right here, right in my kids house, and I don't know what it is! Everyone else is-" He fell silent, quickly, when his wife reentered; there was obviously tension among the elder Howards. For her part, Honey looked again at Wail and said politely, "I heard about what you've been doing in Lincoln with your school. You're setting a good example for those kids out there."
  16. Avenger Assembled
    Citizen, guessing what was happening quickly, let the others tend to the hallucinating actor, making the connection between the bottle and the man that seemed the most likely thing under the circumstances. "He's drugged! Frak it!" He headed straight for the telephone, his mind going into overdrive as he visualized the primitive Terran technology and everything it connected to, thinking about the being that had to be on the other end of the line, the being that had put herself within communications range of the heroes. Put herself within range of ME - Fiber optics inside the hotel at least - surely not still on copper wire? In the name of all reason, why don't they just string cans of nutrient broth together with fiborous cord and talk that way? He picked up the phone and declared "Who is this!?" in a sudden inspiration of mock-confusion.
  17. Avenger Assembled
    Eventually the comforting shadow of a Freedom League spaceplane fell over the unhappy gathering; proof that there were still people out in the world that cared - and they probably weren't in the middle of drug-soaked orgies, whatever certain people might claim. Even heroes need heroes to come to the rescue - and so it was, after their distress call was finally answered, that the Freedom League descended on the little warehouse scene to help out the troubled young heroes. - The Claremont kids, back at Freedom Hall, found themselves in the company of the Raven, who from behind the heavy blue cowl of the armored costume she'd begun wearing recently had many questions for them about WYRM, their friend Rampart, and their investigation at the scene of the 'massacre' at DeWitt. In all-too-familiar power nullifiers, Cho was able to join the conversation; even if their one-on-one debriefings (while the others waited in the hall outside) felt as much like talking to the headmaster as talking to a fellow superhero. It was hard to tell if the Raven was angry or not - but it was absolutely clear she wanted everything. - When Terrifica was halfway through describing the scene of the crime, she realized that Daedalus (whose office they were using) was giving her not the usual stare of a would-be genius who had met his match; but the fascinated look of a man who'd finally met someone on his level. "Fascinating! Were you able to determine the chemical composition of the false flesh in situ?" - In a rooftop conversation behind where the spaceplane had parked, Seven gamely dealt with Phantasmo's gamey scent, not seemingly put off by the zombie's general funk. "And there seemed to be nothing magical on the site?"
  18. Avenger Assembled
    http://orokos.com/roll/286220 = 12 for Citizen
  19. Avenger Assembled
    You all know it!
  20. Avenger Assembled
    Confusion and a little fear flickered in Tarva's eyes for a moment before, with great care, she looked her mistress in the eye. "Of course, Eve," she went on, just the slightest hesitancy in those honeyed tones. "I would be delighted to be your friend." She smiled dazzlingly, turning on the charm. "But I...prefer to remain within your walls," she told her mistress gently. "I have enemies without and wards within, and I feel safest in the embrace of the latter." She smoothed the dress down in a gesture that Eve was almost certain not necessary given that it was by all appearances under her conscious control, pulling it tight against her bosom. "I am fascinated to see what we shall see in these northern woods," she went on. "I have done magic beneath stars and boughs before, but not for some time."
  21. Avenger Assembled
    Dragonfly knows that the Communion hijacks advanced technology by nanite infiltration, which is also what those ships futilely ramming themselves against the Gorgon's hull (or being eaten by the snakes) are made of. But they'd need a massive amount of nanites to even try and hijack the Gorgon's systems, a massive amount like maybe an entire fleet of...oh myyyy.
  22. Avenger Assembled
    "What?!" Nina was too smart to get into it with Erin in the middle of a fight, or for that matter when they weren't fighting. As much as she wanted to know what the bat-wielding hero's problem was, instead she closed in on the van and sure enough brought her sword down on the front tires of their ride. "Fools, your pitiful vehicle is no match for-dammit!" Her scimitar had cut through empty air, or rather through a tire gone suddenly insubstantial. When she caught sight of the driver inside going for what looked like a big, bulky hand-cannon she backed off, trying to move for cover behind the nearest boxes. As for Wander, the goon squad behind the van started to go for their weapons, but the leader, the only one in red body armor, laughed. "What do you think you're going to do to us, Slugger, give us a nice breeze? With the quantum displacement field in here," he added, banging on the side of the van, "we can grab whatever we want and there's not a thing you and Shouty Pants there can do to stop us."
  23. Avenger Assembled
    Everybody give me a Current Events, Technology and/or Galactic Lore check.
  24. Avenger Assembled
    Fast-Forward shrugged. "Paid the bills that way for a long time, even after we switched sides. Of course, that was back when Freedom cops were mostly on the take. No point in handing smack over to them if they're just gonna throw a party in the station house, or put it back on the street a week later." He smiled thinly, then quickly made himself brighten. "All right, it's burger time! Come on boy, get the plates!" What followed was something of a ballet - something that Richard and Will obviously had a great deal of practice with. At super-speed, Fast-Foward cleared away the meat and veggies, putting them on the plates grabbed by Will and a second later, he fast-forwarded the coals through a sudden, memorable flame-out that sent a woosh of heat into the air. "Good stuff!" - ~Thanks, Mom,~ thought Holly with a little more open affection than she might actually say out loud. ~She'd better like me, I'm adorable!~
  25. Avenger Assembled
    The same stuff as the Scarab - and more! Wail remembers that Harry was obviously in love; he talked a lot about his best girl (who he never actually named) and his plans to settle down with her one day. He was mostly a good egg, but it was pretty obvious even through the full face mask he was a white kid from the suburbs, especially when it came to fighting inner city crime. He was no jive turkey, though, and listened to people who knew better - at least when they were in spandex too. At the end of the day, his worst crime was being so damn young. Weren't they all? He had a big list of guys after him, too, Wail had the impression there'd been a common origin story, some kind of industrial accident? But Wail hasn't heard anything from those guys in decades.
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